HTTP/1.1 302 Found Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 00:40:14 GMT Server: Apache Set-Cookie: NYT-S=0M9KCO6U3J/97DXrmvxADeHCnk/YPkMMU/deFz9JchiAIUFL2BEX5FWcV.Ynx4rkFI; expires=Fri, 20-Jun-2014 00:40:14 GMT; path=/; domain=.nytimes.com Location: http://ift.tt/1m0KuOW Content-Length: 0 nnCoection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: Apache Cache-Control: no-cache Channels: NytNow Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: 57010 Accept-Ranges: bytes Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 00:40:14 GMT X-Varnish: 537720222 537719816 Age: 8 Via: 1.1 varnish Connection: keep-alive X-Cache: HIT
http://nyti.ms/TrfXRl
Continuing a rush of rulings that have struck down marriage limits across the country, a federal judge in Pennsylvania on Tuesday declared the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.
“We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,†wrote Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court in a decision posted on Tuesday afternoon.
Pennsylvania is the last of the Northeast states with a ban on same-sex marriage and, if Tuesday’s ruling is not successfully challenged, it will become the 19th state to permit gay and lesbian couples to marry.
Judge Jones did not issue a stay, writing, “By virtue of this ruling, same-sex couples who seek to marry in Pennsylvania may do so, and already married same-sex couples will be recognized as such in the Commonwealth.â€
Even as Gov. Tom Corbett said he was studying the decision and considering whether to appeal it, state officials began issuing marriage licenses on Tuesday afternoon to overjoyed gay couples.
Photo
Ashley Wilson, left, and Lindsay Vandermay, right, kiss after getting their marriage license on Tuesday. Credit Matt Slocum/Associated Press
Outside City Hall in Philadelphia, several hundred people gathered to celebrate the decision, waving rainbow flags and holding up placards reading “Love Wins.†At the Register of Wills office, which issues marriage licenses, same-sex couples started to arrive shortly after the decision was announced.
The city’s marriage license supervisor, Guy Sabelli, predicted an “onslaught†of applications on Wednesday and said that the office would remain open three hours longer than usual.
Tuesday’s applicants included Ashley Wilson and Lindsay Vandermay, both 29, who said they had been closely watching Twitter for news of the court decision. “As soon as we heard, Ashley started crying and I started screaming,†said Ms. Vandermay, a teacher.
As supporters of gay rights celebrated, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, called it “a mistake with long-term, negative consequences†and urged a quick appeal. Judge Jones, who is based in Harrisburg, Pa., was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002.
In the last few months, judges have struck down marriage limits in several states: Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and, on Monday, Oregon. Courts elsewhere have said that states must recognize same-sex marriages performed outside their borders.
In most of the cases, courts have delayed the carrying out of the rulings until appeals can be argued in federal circuit courts and, perhaps, the Supreme Court. But in Oregon, state officials said they would not appeal and the opening of marriage to same-sex couples appeared to be settled.
The lawsuit in Pennsylvania, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a private law firm on behalf of 11 couples, a widow and two teenage children of one couple, is one of more than 70 cases filed around the country since the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act in June.
“It’s kind of overwhelming and wonderful at the same time,†said James D. Esseks, director of the A.C.L.U.’s gay rights programs, who is involved in 11 marriage cases. Mr. Esseks said he expected decisions within the next few weeks on similar challenges in Wisconsin and Florida.
After the Pennsylvania case was filed last summer, state’s attorney general, Kathleen G. Kane, announced that she would not defend the restrictive marriage law, which was adopted by the legislature in 2006. Mr. Corbett, a Republican, hired private lawyers to argue on behalf of state officials named in the suit.
The state put forth arguments that have repeatedly been rejected by the courts. It argued that the legislature had chosen to protect traditional heterosexual marriage and that nothing in the Constitution established a fundamental right to same-sex marriage, which is not rooted in history and tradition.
The state also argued that a 1972 decision, Baker v. Nelson, in which the Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to a state gay-marriage ban, remains the guiding legal case and that last year’s ruling in Windsor v. United States, holding that the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in the states, was actually an endorsement of states’ rights.
But a succession of federal judges, now including Judge Jones in Pennsylvania, have instead relied on the Supreme Court’s finding last year that same-sex marriage bans were fueled by animus and inflicted stigma on gay and lesbian families.
“The plaintiff couples have shared in life’s joys,†Judge Jones wrote in Tuesday’s decision, one of several in federal courts recently that have elicited soaring prose from the judges. But the couples have also shared financial, legal and personal hardships resulting from state discrimination, he went on to say.
He quoted one plaintiff, Deb Whitewood, who told the court: “It sends the message to our children that their family is less deserving of respect and support than other families. That’s a hurtful message.â€
Judge Jones, in his ruling, said, “We now join the 12 federal district courts across the country, which, when confronted with these inequities in their own states, have concluded that all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage.â€
More on nytimes.com
Site Index
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1mV59Fn
0 comments:
Post a Comment